EVALUATING APPROACHES RELATING ECOSYSTEM PRODUCTIVITY WITH DESIS SPECTRAL INFORMATION

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) has the potential to facilitate the monitoring of photosynthesis from space. This study presents a systematic analysis of the physical and physiological meaning of the relationship between fluorescence and photosynthesis at both leaf and canopy levels. We unravel the individual effects of incoming light, vegetation structure and leaf physiology and highlight their joint effects on the relationship between canopy fluorescence and photosynthesis.

To improve predictions of future forest productivity, we introduce an analytical approach that uses data from numerous research experiments that have occurred across the southeastern US to calibrate a mathematical forest model and estimate uncertainty in predictions. As a result, predictions using the model are consistent with a rich history of forest research in a region that supplies a large fraction of wood products to the world.

This work explores the utility of a thermal remote sensing based MODIS/Landsat ET data fusion procedure over a mixed forested/agricultural landscape in North Carolina, USA. The daily ET retrieved at 30 m resolution agreed well with measured fluxes in a clear-cut and a mature pine stand. An accounting of consumptive water use by land cover classes is presented, as well as relative partitioning of ET between evaporation (E) and transpiration (T) components.